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Here are a few SHEDFEST details to get an idea of what the day will be. Perhaps you’d like to join us out on the grass – pop a veggie skewer on the BBQ, enjoy a DIY mocktail, join a pallet pulling race, paint our timber fence, boogie to live music, delight in an ice cream, share a song in our open mic session or play a whole set. Perhaps you’d simply like to nestle into a pile of cushions and make a friend.
Or, perhaps you’d like to get inside the shed and play with tools – learn the halving joint with a Japanese saw to make your own phone / book stand, or join our team to work on a collective sculpture using drills, jigsaws and dropsaws. Perhaps you’d like to share these skills with others.
Our indoor workshops will run almost all day, pausing for a very special premier screening of our Salvage Documentary and an exciting raffle full of goodies!
Everything is by donation (including the raffle!!!) and our huge crew of volunteers are gifting their time to make a day of play for us all. Everything is by donation, and our huge crew of volunteers are gifting their time to make a day of play for us all.
Welcoming anything you’d like to gift too… A helping hand, a smile, a song, a listening ear, a salad or a slice, or perhaps something for the raffle! If not, no worries – your presence is the biggest gift. So excited to share this special day with all who have been a special part of Shedding and Repair Cafe over many years.
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Having hosted our Annual General Meeting in November, we have so much to reflect on and be grateful for as another incredible year at Shedding draws to a close.
First and foremost we extend our heartfelt thanks to the individuals and organizations whose financial support keeps Shedding thriving. We are also deeply appreciative of our amazing volunteers, whose dedication ensures everything runs smoothly and efficiently.
A special shoutout to our outstanding Admin Team for keeping things organized and seamless. And, of course, a huge thank you to Sophie and Patt for their inspiring leadership and vision, which continues to foster both community connection and individual well-being.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so in this newsletter, we invite you on a visual journey of the many activities and projects that happened at Shedding this year, including the total numbers across the financial year of 2023-2024 from our AGM. Grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the show!
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This year we hosted over 40 UPSKILL workshops, supporting over 250 people – groups, organisations, businesses, councils and individuals from all over the country and world.
We hosted four free workshops for Housing Recovery Week in June for flood-affected residents in Byron and Ballina.
We hosted workshops for over 25 staff and volunteers from Resilient Lismore, 15 from The Paddock, volunteers from Gold Coast Tool Library and staff from Byron Resource and Recovery Centre.
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This free weekly workshop is an introduction to design and build projects together – from start to finish. We provide the project, tools and materials for you to discover what is needed to bring a project to life. It is such a fun time, a great place to show off your existing tool skills, learn some new ones, and share the joy of supporting each other.
We hosted over 50 SPACEMAKERS workshops this year. This weekly collaborative design and build workshop has grown from strength to strength, with an average of 15 participants each week.
Our Spacemakers have supported each other to share extensive skills using power-tools, gaining valuable knowledge in building with salvaged materials and supporting each others’ wellbeing.
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Repair Cafe offers people the opportunity to help our community by sharing skills to support the collaborative repair of household items, like toasters or bicycles and small home projects.
We welcome skilled volunteers and anyone who wants to help, to come together to assist however they can. But it’s not just about fixing things – it’s also about meeting new people, sharing knowledge, and having fun. Everyone is welcome to join in, learn something new, and feel the spirit of community. Whether you have something to fix or just want to help out, the Repair Cafe is a great way to experience teamwork, laughter, and a sense of achievement.
Our Repair Cafe is expanding at a phenomenal rate, welcoming new volunteers every week. This year we hosted over 50 Repair Cafe workshops. Since July 2023 our weekly Repair Cafe workshop has expanded to support an average of 30 repairs per week. We repaired over 1000 items this year!
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Our last Potluck Dinner is this Wednesday 4th December!
This year we hosted 12 monthly Potluck Dinners, welcoming over 200 guests to join an evening of conversation, delicious food and a bit of fun learning to tie and teach new knots. Sharing food has become a huge part of our culture, and potluck dinners are a wonderful opportunity to welcome old and new Shedders alike.
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Empowering You to Empower Others
Our aim is to inspire and empower like-minded individuals and organisations and to share our practices, resources, and networks to empower communities (far and wide) with practical carpentry and building skills in safe and supportive environments.
Empower has trained over 200 participants and wrapped up in February 2024 with our Integration Event. We have since realised that Empower was the beginning of something much bigger – we are overwhelmed at the consistent generosity of hundreds of volunteers who carry our non-hierarchical teaching and leading values both within and outside of our shed in other community spaces.
We notice an increase of ‘empowered’ mentors across all workshops, and witnessed the integration of their collective skills which has increased our capacity as an organisation.
Since creating Empower, we receive calls from across the country from people wanting to establish their own inclusive workshops for building, salvage and repair. We seek funding to continue offering this workshop in response to requests from communities far and wide. If you want to find out more, you can check out our dynamic acquittal on YouTube.
Our Empower Integration Event welcomed over 40 ’empowered mentors’ to join a brainstorming session to help us plan the future of Shedding, sharing our model for resilience with others.
Byron and Ballina Council, Resilient Lismore, and The Paddock, brought their staff, volunteers, clients and residents to discover our non-hierarchical wellbeing values in teaching and leading.
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We received funding from the InGrained Foundation in September 2023 to fund our Shedding on the Road project – visiting one community each month to offer a weekend of workshops and events to inspire a network of inclusive sheds across the region.
We bought our truck from lovely Ken (original founder of the Repair Cafe) and delighted in the generous donation of a trailer from Solo Resource Recovery. We started consultations with local and regional groups. At Spacemakers, we built saw horses and benchtops and began to collate the necessary tools and equipment to take to each venue.
We visited flood-affected communities including Wardell, South Golden Beach, Uki, Kyogle, and Lismore for a fun and educational weekend where we aimed to empower communities with practical carpentry and building skills in a safe and supportive environment.
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In January 2024 we received funding from QBE Foundation for our 6-month Salvage Crew project. Our aim was to discover, experiment with, and establish efficient, practical, accessible, and replicable systems and structures for recycling ‘waste’ building materials.
We sourced, collected, processed, documented, and stored materials for reuse. We explored safety protocols, wellbeing support, community outreach, collaboration, consultation and resource sharing to move towards long-term solutions for reuse.
This project allowed us to support many other organisations through collaboration, including Byron Community College and Mullum Clayworkers.
Through the month of June, lovely Ash filmed our Salvage Crew documentary, which will be released at the end of this year – the world-wide premiere showing at Shedfest!
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In August we were delighted to receive the award for “Initiative of the Byron Shire” at the Byron Shire Community Awards for our “Post-Flood Repair Cafe Initiative.”.
In November, we were honoured to receive the national Resilient Australia 2023 award for “Mental Health and Wellbeing”. You can find out more here.
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| 🎊 4th December 2024 – Monthly Potluck Dinner 6-9pm
🎊 8th December 2024- SHEDFEST End of Year Celebration
🎊 9th December 2024 – Shedfest Pack-Up (We’d love your help)
🎊 12th December 2024 – Shedding Closes
🎊 10th January 2024 – Shedding Reopens
🎊 5th February 2025 – Shedding’s first Monthly Potluck for 2025! |
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Your donations help us to help
those in need of our services
We so appreciate the support of our Shedders who give their time each week to help our space support our community. Another huge level of support is financial donations. If you’d like to support us with a tax deductible donation you can hop onto our website or simply use the following account details:
Name: Shedding Community Workshop Inc
BSB: 722744
Account Number: 100129062
Description: Donation
We are so grateful for your support.
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Regular workshops
UPSKILL
UPSKILL is the place to start your Shedding journey. It’s an introduction to the fundamentals of carpentry and building, and once you’ve done it you can jump into all our other workshops.
Day: 1x Saturday (check the website for dates)
Time: 8.30am-1.00pm
Cost: $50.00 (Can’t afford it? Get in touch)
Book in: Click here
SPACEMAKERS
Every Friday our SPACEMAKERS crew share skills to learn tools and collaboratively design and build a range of community projects. It’s such a fun time and a great place to practice your existing tool skills, learn some new ones, and share the joy of supporting each other.
Day: Fridays
Time: 10am-3pm
Cost: By donation
RSVP: To book your spot email us, or just drop by and say hi.
REPAIR CAFE
Join our host of volunteers every Saturday afternoon as we passionately share skills to repair all manner of things. You don’t need to be an expert, basically if you can turn a screw driver anti-clockwise you’ve got the skills we need!
Day: Saturdays
Time: 1.30pm-4.30pm
Cost: By donation
RSVP: Just drop by and say hi.
MONTHLY POTLUCK DINNERS
On the first Wednesday of each month our Shedding community comes together to share food, conversation and hands-on skills. We’re currently learning knot tying, it’s so much fun!
Day: First Wednesday of the month
Time: 6pm-9pm
Cost: Bring a dish to share or a donation (recommended $10)
RSVP: Send us an email/facebook message
Can’t wait to get on tools with you!
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